Trento, 09 March 2021

On wednesday the start of Play Off Scudetto 2021 at BLM Group Arena

The start of Play Off SuperLega Credem Banca 2021. For the first match of this Italian trophy, Itas Trentino will play against Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza in one of the 3 match that will assign a pass for the semifinal. The first match of the quarter finals will be played on Wednesday 10th March at BLM Group Arena di Trento: starting whistle scheduled for 8.30 pm. Live on RAI Sport + and Radio Dolomiti.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO gialloblù team spent the last 30 days focusing only on Champions League, but now it’s time to train for the championship and begin to walk on the path towards the Italian title. Giannelli and his fellow-players are particularly motivated by the qualification to the semi finals of the European Championship and having achieved 22 victories out of 24 matches played. Thanks to its 3rd place on the ranking, the team will play one more match during the quarter finals on home field in comparison to the opponent team. The first opponent is Piacenza, during regular season Itas defeated it 3-0 twice. 
“These two matches doesn’t represent the absolute truth, indeed we haven’t faced the real Gas Sales Bluenergy yet - said Angelo Lorenzetti while presenting the match - Piacenza is a team with very strong setter and hitter spikers and it’s definitely more worthy than the 6th place it has achieved at the end of the first phase of the tournament. So I expect an intense match, we will have to commit a lot in order to win it, but it’s normal given that the level at SuperLega is very very high. During Play Off it’s better to concentrate on one match at a time and give the best; this will be our attitude, day by day”.
For the match number 1, gialloblù coach can count on all 13 players of the team, they all have regularly trained during last days. This weekend will begin 12th Play Off fot eh career of Marko Podrascanin, he’s the one to have played more (and won 3 times), number 7 for Simone Giannelli who collected the highest number of presences- 43- wearing gialloblù skirt during this phase of the season. 3 players will debut: the hitter spiker Lucarelli, the setter Sperotto and the middle blocker Cortesia. On Wednesday, Trentino Volley will play 883th official match of its sotry, 119th of Play Off Scudetto and will try to chase 619th victory ever. 
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S SPTRY DURING PLAYOFF SCUDETTO On Wednesday, Itas will play its 18th Play Off Scudetto in 21 seasons of activity; gialloblù Club didn’t play it during season 2000/01, 2001/02 e 2019/20 (lates time due to the pandemic). 12 times, Itas managed to win first match; it was eliminated at the quarter finals aganist Modena (2002/03 in 5 matches and 2013/14 in 2 matches), Perugia (2003/04 in 4 matches, after having won regular season), Piacenza (2004/05 in 5 matches) and Cuneo (2006/07, in 3 matches). In this edition, Itas will chase to play for 9th time out of the last 13 participations the final match. Not considering the unlucky presence in 2013/14 (2 defeats out of 2 matches), in every Play Off theteam has played, it has always won at least a match; 14 times out of 17 it won the first match, also 3-0 on home field against Padova last edition 2019.
THE OPPONENTS Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza gained the pass defeating 3-1 Padova twice during the preliminary phase, and now the goal is to improve and try to qualify for the other matches. The team is trained by Lorenzo Bernardi (very keen on Scudetti- he won 9 of them as players and 1 as coach) and will play after having achieved 7 consecutive victories: last 5 matches of regular season and the first 2 of post season against Kioene. Among the players, the best are the opposite Grozer (114 poinst duirng last matches, an average of 16 per match) and above all Itas former player Aaron Russell (122 poinst in last 7 matches).
PREVIOUS MATCHES During the years, the match against Piacenza has become an important event for Italian male Volleyball, also thanks to the many matches played (this team is the 3rd opponent of Trentino Volley, in overall the matches already played are 58, first opponent is Civitanova -77- and second is Modena -76-.) The two teams also played the final matches in year 2008, 2009 and 2013, in 2018/19 Piacenzawas playing in Serie A2, but then during the Italian championship in 2019/2020 played again. Trentino Volley won 40 times, the other team 18. During the last 28 matches, gialloblù won 24 times. It has been a very long time since Piacenza last won a match at the BLM Group Arena: last time was on 17th May 2009 (3-2 match 5 of playoff, then the team won the Scudetto), at the time Angelo Lorenzetti.was coach of biancorossi. In total, Trento won 26 matches out of the 31 played against Piacenza on home field, last one was on 20th December 2020 (victory 3-0 and the sets 25-16, 25-21, 25-17). This season, gialloblù also won 3-0 in Emilia, on 11th October (the sets  25-22, 25-13, 25-21).
THE SERIE the quarter finals are “best of 3 matches”; the team that wins 2 out of 3 qualifies. After the first match, the teams will play in Piacenza second match on 14th March at 6 pm, while the eventual match 3 would be scheduled for 21st March (at 6pm) in Trentino. The team that will continue, will play agaunst the winner of Civitanova-Modena: these two teams will play on Sunday in Marche. The other teams are Perugia-Milano and Monza-Vibo Valentia (on field tonight ).
THE REFEREES 1st match will be directed by Giuseppe Curto (from Gorizia, in Serei A since 2013) and Massimiliano Giardini (from Verona, in Serie A since 2014), for Curto it will be 13the match and for Giardini 10th one. Curto directed the match against Vibo Valentia  (defeat 3-1) on 25th Novemebr and the victory 3-0 against Padova (13th February), while Giardini directed Trento-Civitanova 3-0 on 14th December.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The event will be very important at a worldwide level, for this reason it will be broadcast live on tv, radio and INTERNET. Indeed, RAI Sport + will broadcast it on channel number 57 in HD, on 58 in sd and on Sky on channel 227; the commentary will be made by Maurizio Colantoni and Andrea Lucchetta; it will be possible to follow it also on RaiPlay, both video and audio.
It will also be broadcast on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley, starting from 8.30 pm. It will be possible to find the frequencies on www.radiodolomiti.com, there it will also be possible to listen to it going to the section “On Air”.
On Tv catch-up on Saturday 13th, at 9.30 pm on RTTR- partner of ITAS TRENTINO.
On the net is possible to follow the news of the match point-to point (www.legavolley.it) and on  www.trentinovolley.it  and on the Social Network www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
NO SPECTATORS ALLOWED TO BLM GROUP ARENA According to the new measures of the latest DPCM, no spectators will be allowed to the arena, only personnel or staff will have the possibility to enter.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office